


oblivious

by delizeita



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Legendary Pokémon Acquisition, Crack, Friendship, Gen, Legendary Pokemon, Mistaken Identity, Oblivious Yellow, Pokemon Battles, Pokemon Contests, Pokemon Journey, Pokemon shenanigans, Red needs a break
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26902774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delizeita/pseuds/delizeita
Summary: Yellow loves her Pokémon a lot, and they love her too.Or: Yellow sucks at telling Pokémon apart and Red wants to cry.
Relationships: Yellow & Red (Pokemon)
Kudos: 22





	oblivious

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [the storm comes quietly before it shakes the entire world](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8162134) by [Tatsumaki_sama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tatsumaki_sama/pseuds/Tatsumaki_sama). 



Six months after Red and Yellow decide to go on a journey to fill out their National Pokédexes together, Red becomes aware of how terrible Yellow is at telling Pokémon apart.

Originally, he only noticed the small things. Once when fighting Team Rocket again, Yellow had yelled at him, "Be careful of the Dustox! Its wings are poisonous!" He'd dismissed it as a mistake, because Beautiflies didn't have poisonous wings. It was probably just a simple mistake.

In the end, it didn't matter, because her Raticate (affectionately nicknamed Ratty) promptly knocked it out of the air and put it out of commission.

Now, at the Pokémon Trivia Night, Red regrets everything. To win extra prizes, he had insisted on participating individually. They're still quietly sharing their answers from next to one another, but it looks like all Red has done is earned himself a front-row seat to the obliviousness that is Yellow.

Yellow has done fine for the majority of the trivia. She has the 'Battle Matchups' section down pat. She's unparalleled in the 'Interesting Facts' section because being able to talk to Pokémon apparently has its benefits.

However, now they're starting the 'Pokémon Identification' section of the trivia. As they are both experienced Pokémon trainers, Red isn't too worried for this section for either of them. Of course, Yellow has slip-ups every then and again, but this should be easy.

The presenter motions the first Pokémon onto the stage. Easy. It's a Cascoon. Lilac silk cocoon and angular red eyes? Done and dusted. After filling out his answer, Red peers over Yellow's shoulder so see what she put. Next to the number one on her sheet, is _Silcoon_. Alright, that's an easy mistake to make.

"What did you put down?" she whispers to him.

"Cascoon," he mouths back. She gives him a questioning look, but the presenter is already calling the next Pokémon onstage.

The next Pokémon is a Wobbuffet. Red writes down his answer before turning to Yellow. This one was pretty simple, did Yellow manage to ge- Nope. She has _Quagsire_ written down on her answer sheet.

He taps her shoulder and motions to her answer sheet. "It's a Wobbuffet."

Yellow looks at him, then his answer sheet and then back at her own. "I'm 100% sure it's a Quagsire."

"Yellow, please trust me on this."

"Nope. Not changing it." Red sighs at this, he forgot how stubborn Yellow could be once she'd decided on something.

The next Pokémon walks onstage. A small brown bird Pokémon with spiky feathers and red coloured wings? No doubt about it.

He nudges her and says, "It's a Spearow."

Yellow's mouth drops open and she spins towards Red. "It's a Pidgey!" she hisses back.

They narrow their eyes at one another and have a mini staring competition until the next Pokémon is announced.

"Obviously a Rhyhorn," she mutters.

Red wants to scream. "It's a Larion, for Christ's sake! The white rock armour isn't fully covering it and it has circular holes along it's side! It's a Larion!" He's still whispering at this point, but getting louder rather quickly in his exasperation.

It gets worse from there, and now Red doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry. He knows that Yellow is being serious about this, and is not trying to prank him. To be completely honest, he honestly doesn't know which option is worse.

"Pidove!"

"No, it's a Starly!"

"That's a Weedle!"

"Caterpie!"

"Ekans!"

"Seviper, without a doubt!"

"Krabby!"

"It's a Corphish! Yellow, it looks _nothing_ like Misty's Krabby at all!"

Red is best friends with an idiot.

Red looks up at the stage for the next Pokémon's reveal. They're now up to Question 9 out of 10, and Yellow has gotten every single one wrong, and she is completely oblivious about it. At this point he's wondering whether something like this is even humanly possible.

The presenter summons the penultimate Pokémon. A shiny Magikarp flops onstage. Simple. She should easily be able to- "Feebas!" His mouth drops open and he whips his head around to stare at her. Yellow is bouncing in her seat and looking very confident with her choice.

She meets his eyes and grins. "I studied really hard for this!" she whispers conspiratorially.

Red stays silent.

The presenter ushers the last Pokémon onto the stage. It's a rather cute Pachirisu sporting a pink bow on its tail. It preens under the attention, threads of electricity arcing over it's tail. Pachirisu is one of the only squirrel Pokémon and this one is clearly electricity type, so there is a chance she wi- "Pikachu!" 

_What?_ Even an Emolga is a better fit in terms of appearances! And Red literally has Pika sitting on his shoulder! They look nothing alike!

He gives her a disbelieving look. She grins, "It's clearly a Pikachu! Look, it's cute, electric and has a tail! No other choice."

Pika makes an offended noise from Red's shoulder.

"And the giant tail and blue fur?" he quips back with a little bit of sarcasm.

Yellow glares at him, puffing up her cheeks in anger. He notes she looks rather adorable when annoyed. "Red! That's mean!" She continues before he can say anything else, "The Pikachu might feel self-conscious about its fur and larger tail!"

"Or, it could be a Pachirisu." he dryly retorts.

Yellow looks back at the stage and narrows her eyes at the pokemon displayed there.

"Nope. It's a Pikachu."

From Red's shoulder, Pika covers his eyes with his tiny yellow paws.

Needless to say, Yellow didn't win the trivia.

This was only the start.

As they continued their journey through the continents, trying to fill out their National Pokédexes while removing the remnants of Team Rocket along the way, it became increasingly apparent that Yellow couldn't tell Pokémon apart to save her life.

Red looks up from grooming Pika as Yellow bounds towards him through the undergrowth, Ratty in tow. They've been exploring and documenting the Pokémon in Sinnoh's largest forest for the past week. The trainers here are just as competitive as they are back at home, and there are new Pokémon all over the place to battle and add to his Pokédex. Not only that, he's heard whispers of a haunted house hidden in the depths of the forest that he is honestly excited to explore. 

Yellow tells him it's similar to Kanto's Viridian forest in many ways, which is probably why she looks so happy here. She basically grew up right next to an environment like this, and her actions tell Red how much she misses her old home. She has funny habit of befriending Pokémon wherever she goes, and they all seem to love her.

But right now, she's having the time of her life making friends with what seems to be nearly every single the Pokémon in the forest, and she's gained scores of new friends from her traipsing through the woods. It's rather adorable how they actively search for her company, and sometimes following her around or offering her little gifts of friendship. 

Standing up to greet her, Red smiles as she runs towards him with what is probably a new Pokémon friend under her arm.

She holds it up and enthusiastically presents it to Red, the Pokémon dangling from her grip. "Look, Red! I made friends with this pretty Deerling! Say hi!"

He takes one look at the so-called Deerling and does a spit-take.

_What._

Slowly, Red looked directly into Yellow's smiling eyes and back at her new friend, resisting the urge to facepalm.

The Pokémon she held in her arms was clearly a happy-looking Shaymin in Sky Forme. 

The Shaymin in question meets his bewildered stare and smiles a little, shyly shifting its flowing antler-like ears up a little, as if in greeting. It has two beautiful pink flower petals on the side of its neck, forming a beautiful contrast with its snow-white fur and Red thinks he can smell the calming scent of a Gracedia bloom emanating from it.

Usually, Red would say hello, nice to meet you, and so on back, but right now he is a little busy trying to comprehend what had just happened.

First of all, _what the actual hell_.

That was a _Mythical Pokémon_ Yellow was holding in her arms like some common creature. _A Mythical!_

How did she find one? Why did it approach Yellow? How did she manage to get close enough to hold it? 

Even better, how did she even manage to mix a _Shaymin_ up with a Deerling? Deerlings were mainly found in _Unova_. They were in _Sinnoh_. He would admit that it was a simple, logical mistake because Shaymin was so rare, but then again, they're in the _wrong freaking continent_ to find a Deerling.

Also, most importantly, what sort of Deerling has such large ears, and they're _pastel pink_ , for Christ's sake! The Pokémon she is holding in her arms is freaking green and white!

That's it. His brain is hurting. After this, Red is bringing Yellow to an optometrist and then to the best psychologist he can find. _As fast as possible._

He's full on praying that there is a logical explanation for this, because the alternative scares him.

**Author's Note:**

> I read Tatsumaki_sama's work 'the storm comes quietly before it shakes the entire world', went _ohmigod this is amazing_ and couldn't help but start thinking.  
> What would happen if one of the canon Pokémon characters had a supposed inability to tell different Pokémon apart despite being a trainer themselves?
> 
> And thus, this crackfic was born.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed it!


End file.
